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Band:Graveyard Dirt Album:Shadows of Old Ghosts Record Company:Lugga Music Writer: Mark Carras Media: MySpace Click Album Cover To Buy Now

When I first heard of the band Graveyard Dirt, I thought it was a name that was genius in it's simplicity. A name so obvious that it was shocking that no one else had taken it. The problem is that if you do a Google search for the band's name you get nothing but Wiccan ritual sites and information on how to use garveyard dirt to put a hex on your girlfriend’s father’s left butt cheek. So the band has some work to do if they want to take over the name. Great name though.

So how is the music? Well, this is some very slow doom. The vocals are a mix of whispered, growled, and clean sung vocals. The clean vocals are more of a whiskey drenched dry style than say the full and robust style any of the Candlemass singers have used. Almost a spoken word kind of thing really. Here is a perfect example of a guy who has zero range, but still finds several ways to emote. The last thing they released was a demo more than a decade ago. I have no idea what they sounded like back then, but this is a good start. With some work and a good producer this band could become the next big thing in gothic doom metal.

When he does his more gruff vocal he chooses a range that is way too far from his natural range. This is where a good producer would come in handy. I know he is just trying to make it the most heavy doom he can, but I think it would improve things if he stayed within his natural range. Other than that I can't find a single thing wrong with this three track wonder. This is nearly perfect doom. I have not heard doom done this well in a very long time. If you love doom then this is a must have! Oh yeah, about that whole 3 song thing, don't worry. The three songs are all extremely long (as most good doom is). Things start off with the nearly 12 minute "Rise...Fallen Skies". When I told my wife that the song she was listening to was called "A Tearless Lament", she laughed and replied "Of course it is." That is the thing about this band. They are such perfectly done doom that it is almost a bad thing. As in too close to what you would expect. Not that that is a bad thing to me. I love it when someone gets the recipe right for a change. I just know some of you will slam the band for doing so, so I figured I would mention it. The cd ends with the 13 minute and 37 second epic "Gathering Storm".

So did this Rock My Monkey? Hell yeah! I love to slam bands for ridiculously long songs. Most of the time it is long for the sake of being long. It would be so easy to cut most of those so called epics to two minutes. With Graveyard Dirt I can't even begin to imagine where anyone could cut anything out without taking away from what the song has to offer. These songs are long because they can't be any shorter. It is rare, but this band proves it can be done. If I ever wanted to put a curse on my brother in law's left butt cheek, I would do it with this cd playing in the background! My wife thinks this is great music to knit to, but she's kind of strange that way. She likes to sew dolly clothes to extremely bloody action movies, too. I think she has issues.

Band:Graveyard Dirt Album:Shadows of Old Ghosts Record Company:Lugga Music Writer: Mark Carras Media: MySpace Click Album Cover To Buy Now

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